FY23: A year in review
Reflections from our CEO
For me, a new financial year represents a new season. It’s a chance to reflect, to take stock of achievements and lessons learnt along the way. It’s also a time for new beginnings – to set priorities and prepare for what the new financial year may have in store.
Looking back, FY23 was a year of progress and momentum for ABGF, but also one of challenges for many small to medium businesses. A lot were impacted by difficult economic conditions as they dealt with stimulus-driven inflation, higher interest rates and a drop in consumer demand. Despite these uncertain times, there are positive signs in the economy.
Many businesses are performing strongly and are ready for growth, including those that are well established, offer a unique value proposition and have a resilient capital structure. And with the federal government focused on bolstering Australia’s sovereign capability, industries such as manufacturing, medical technology and renewable energy are full of potential.
At ABGF, we’ve seen demand for growth capital increase, with the makeup of the businesses that approached us in FY23 changing slightly. For example, leisure and hospitality emerged as the top industry this year. While demand was still high from technology and manufacturing companies, they were less dominant than previous years.
Since inception, ABGF has deployed almost $130 million in investments, including nearly $27 million in follow-on funding. Throughout the year, many of our investee companies have acquired complementary businesses, offered new services, expanded their capacity, invested in new technologies and boosted their executive teams. Together, they have created more jobs in the community, with a collective 27% increase in FTE in the past six months. Our investment team has been hands-on supporting our portfolio companies – shaping strategy, building capability, assisting with M&A activity, helping to recruit talent and lifting the quality of governance.
Now, as ABGF approaches its third anniversary, it’s heartening to see the impact of our unique public-private partnership in supporting businesses that would otherwise struggle to gain solid growth. As my peer in the UK, BGF CEO Andy Gregory recently said, ‘we can invest when times are good, and we can invest and support scaleup businesses when times are not so good. This is our nature and our purpose, and we believe it is as relevant now as ever.’
Looking towards a new financial year, we continue to meet with businesses that have developed innovative new products and services, are disrupting the status quo and are helping to solve some of Australia’s biggest challenges. As we face the season ahead, I am optimistic that the growth opportunities for many businesses are set to continue.
Anthony Healy
CEO and Managing Director, Australian Business Growth Fund
